Disney Is in Trouble With MAGA

Disney is losing its popularity amongst Donald Trump supporters, according to an exclusive poll conducted for Newsweek.

On December 8, Redfield and Wilton Strategies grilled 1,500 eligible U.S. voters on the animation behemoth, with participants asked: "To what extent, if at all, do you think the quality of Disney films have gotten better or worse in recent years?"

Forty-six percent of Trump voters said Disney movies have gotten "worse" or "much worse"— compared to just 16 percent of Joe Biden's supporters.

When asked for their thoughts on the company as a whole, 38 percent of Trump fans had an "unfavorable" or "very unfavorable" view of Disney, while only 12 percent of Biden voters felt the same.

Is Disney Driving Away Fans with its Inclusive Content?

2023 was a difficult year for the entertainment giant. During Disney's November earnings call, CEO Bob Iger said the company had focused on quantity over quality, resulting in a series of flops.

The studio's latest movie, Wish, underperformed—despite being released over Thanksgiving weekend—earning $31.7 million compared to the expected $45-$55 million.

The feature-length animation was Disney's fourth theatrical release to fall short this year. The studio's reboot of the Haunted Mansion and superhero sequel Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania failed to meet expectations, as did the fifth installment in the Indiana Jones franchise, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

With Wish coming to Disney Plus soon, survey participants were asked how interested they were in seeing the movie. Fifty-nine percent of Trump supporters said they were either "familiar" or "very familiar" with the film, and despite a high number saying Disney films have declined in quality, 57 percent of those who had heard of Wish are "interested" or "very interested" in watching it.

However, box office blunders are not the only issue the company is facing. Disney theme parks have seen a drop in visitors with price hikes, competition from rival attractions and the company's ongoing legal battle with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis posed as reasons for the decline.

Disney Plus streaming service also reported a $387 million loss in the fourth quarter of 2023. Conservative figures, such as comedian Rob Schneider, conservative commentator Matt Walsh, and Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson claim Disney's financial struggles are the result of the company's attempts to be more inclusive.

In recent years, the studio has expanded its representation of LGBTQ+ and minority characters, such as Lake in Elemental (2023)—billed as Disney's first non-binary character—and casting Black actress Halle Bailey to play Ariel in the remake of The Little Mermaid (2023).

Luca Rovinalti—CEO of media agency Svet Solutions—said the "polarizing political drama" may have led to Disney's reputation taking a hit. However, it's unlikely to have had much impact on the company's profit margins.

"Disney Plus's performance is in line with that of other direct competitors," he told Newsweek.

"Lower increases in profitability have characterized the digital platform sphere during 2023, with platforms facing a decrease in subscribers after the COVID pandemic."

According to Rovinalti, entertainment companies are feeling the pinch across the board, with the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes and the over-saturation of streaming platforms causing industry-wide profit losses and job cuts.

Although an earlier poll conducted on behalf of Newsweek by Redfield and Wilton strategies found that both Republicans and Democrats are tired of Disney remaking its classic cartoons in live-action—instead wishing the company would focus on telling new stories—the majority of respondents were happy for the studio to update its narrative to be more inclusive and remove outdated or offensive stereotypes.

"Of course, there are a number of people who do not appreciate the change, believing that the inner nature of the stories is forced to a change to satisfy politically driven considerations," said Rovinalti.

"But despite the political polarization of viewers, which reflects a still divided American society on topics like inclusion and social issues, it has impacted the profitability of Disney in a relatively low way."